The operation to liberate Manbij had launched on June 1 under the name “Operation Commander Faysal Ebu Leyla” and ended on August 12 with ISIS gangs cleared off the city and the people freed. During the operation, the people saw a hope to be free from ISIS cruelty and took refuge in the areas where the freedom fighters were. After all neighborhoods were liberated, sometimes by them, sometimes by the freedom fighters, the people saw that the dark days were over and expressed their gratitude to the freedom fighters.

Dozens of young women and men from Manbij joined the SDF and YPG/YPJ after Manbij was liberated. One of them is Shirin Manbij from Manbij’s Esediye neighborhood. She says she decided to join after the Esediye neighborhood was liberated and that she wants to be wherever there is a fight for freedom.

Shirin Manbij was born to a Kurdish mother and an Arab father. She says the most important reason she joined the ranks of the YPJ is “It was the first time I saw people fighting and giving their lives for others.” She especially underlines that this gave her strength and hope, and says that she has decided to spend her life for the freedom and happiness of others. She says that she was very insistent to take part in the Raqqa operation, because she “would be the best person to understand how they feel in captivity and how they will feel after they are freed”.

Manbij says ISIS hid their true nature when they first entered Manbij, and continues: “At first they tried treating the people better, to win them over. When they achieved full control of the city, their cruelty, oppression and torture increased. They took life under total control and then they started to interfere with everything. They put the women in all black clothes, they said women had to wear gloves on their hands even. We couldn’t get out of our homes anymore. Everywhere ISIS is in power, the people are sacrificed to them.”

Shirin Manbij is now tending to her DHSK gun, headed to Raqqa in the ranks of YPJ. She enters every village, every hamlet liberated from ISIS with joy. “We will build a new and free life in Raqqa by definitively clearing the city off ISIS gangs,” says Manbij and adds that it makes her very happy to take part in this operation, especially as a woman.

“I can see the women and girls of Raqqa in their free days even now,” says Shirin, and holds on to the trigger of her gun.